The horse was still in the same place on the road and the rider was holding up both arms towards the approaching white monstrosity. The Hunter appeared in another open space between the trees, running full speed back along the road.
“What is that thing?” Trey asked in a hoarse whisper.
An insight came in a flash even though no one had described the physical form now hovering over the horse and the rider. “A Vassago,” I croaked.
Chapter 23 – Magical Duel
The sun seemed to dim as the huge white form hovered over the sorceress, slowly flapping its wings. The wingspan was at least ten times the length of the horse on each side of a small central body. The wings were flexible. Each stroke sent ripples down the wings in the way a snake uses when it slithers through the grass.
The horse, which had been standing motionless, suddenly reared and flailed at the sky with both front hooves. The sorceress dived to one side as the horse went down on its knees, rolled over, and then struggled back to its feet. She made a grab for the horse as it turned to flee, but missed and sprawled in the ground as the horse thundered back along the road, clumps of dirt spraying from under its feet.
The things Sorcha said about no one knowing how to fight a Vassago ran through my mind like a rampaging bull elk. I was glad it hadn’t homed in on us, but it was close enough it could still do so. I increased my efforts to hide, almost to the level when I had previously drawn too much magic through one of the opals. The air started to shimmer as the magic concentrated between us and the Vassago.
Just as the Effigia had done, the Vassago touched the ground and began to transform into a different, much smaller, form. The transformation was much slower than when Sorcha changed from a dragon to a human.
The woman was on her hands and knees, crawling quickly away from the shrinking form. She reached a distance of about fifty paces and rose to her feet before the change in the Vassago was complete.
I heard a moan from Ara and then she mumbled, “Why is it so cold?”
“Evil magic,” I hissed, unwilling to take my eyes off of what was happening on the road.
“Oh,” she muttered and started stirring.
The Effigia had been dark, and this form was light. Even though they were mortal enemies, maybe they had survived so long because they weren’t out roaming around at the same time. The implications of that thought struck home as I took a deep breath. The Effigia hunted at night and the Vassago hunted during the day. That revelation meant neither time was safe for humans.
Even though Ara, and even Trey, could talk circles around me, I knew I was more stubborn than they were. That wasn’t always an advantage, especially when I held to the wrong idea, but I had one idea I was going to cling to like a drowning swimmer clutching a log. I was going to find a way to drive off a hunting Vassago. Even more than that, I was going to find a way to destroy the ancient evil creatures. They might have been human at one time, but they weren’t human now.
That thought changed the way I viewed the unfolding drama on the road. The woman no longer tried to escape, instead, she was facing the approaching figure, which was now walking like a man. The shape was wrong for a man, though. I was too far away to see the small details, but it looked like it was covered with white fur and it moved slowly and stiffly. Although the Vassago was taller than the woman, the shoulders were high and rounded and the head was much too small, with no obvious neck.
Sorcha had said a Vassago was totally blind, but it was heading directly at the woman. How could it do that if it was blind?
I knew I could still tell where Ara and Trey were, even if I closed my eyes. I could sense their general direction just from listening to them breathe or move. I could tell their location almost as precisely using magic as I could using my eyes. The Vassago must be using other senses if it was blind, and from what Sorcha and Zephyr had said, they only hunted people who used magic. To hide, I would need to totally hide the use of magic–or not use magic.
The sorceress lowered one arm to her side and pointed at the approaching Vassago with the other hand. A thin shaft of blue fire leaped from her extended hand and touched the Vassago.
I had thrown a ball of magical fire at the Effigia. It had expanded when it hit and enveloped the entire figure. This spear of blue fire didn’t expand, but it bounced off and up into the sky.
“Wow,” Ara said. Beside her, I heard Trey take in a large breath and stifle an exclamation.
“Magical fire,” I muttered, partly to myself. “Sorcha said it doesn’t work against a Vassago.”
The woman brought up her second hand and waved both of them back and forth. At first, I thought she was giving in to fright and then dirt began to rise from the road surface. So much dirt started moving that the road took on the appearance of a muddy stream or landslide. The dirt swirled around the Vassago and then piled up in a heap several times my height.
Everything stopped moving and the woman dropped her hands. Not even a bird was visible in the sky and no squirrels scolded each other over the sudden movement. They must have sensed the evil magic in the battle raging on the road.
I could feel my heart thumping in my chest, hoping the Vassago was dead, but not believing that was the case. Then, dirt shifted and started tumbling off the side of the immense pile. A patch of white appeared and then the Vassago emerged, moving through the dirt with the type of motions a swimmer used.
A shrill scream of rage and fear swept up the hillside as the woman started waving one arm like she was hitting or throwing something. At first, I couldn’t see what she was doing, and then a rock big enough to see from my vantage point of several hundred paces rose from the dirt pile and started striking the Vassago.
The Vassago staggered and then raised one arm above its head. It must have started using a magical shield like I had developed because the battering rock didn’t seem to have any effect as it slid down the pile of dirt and stood in the middle of the road.
The woman dropped the rock and stood, swaying slightly, until the white figure of the evil creature took another step closer. She brought both arms up and gestured at the sky. The Vassago rose in the air, tumbling head over heels until it was even with where Ara, Trey and I were hiding.
Suddenly, the Vassago shot toward the ground much faster than a falling object. It was just above the ground when its wings snapped out even wider than they had been when it was flying. The plunge stopped and the Vassago landed on its feet as the wings absorbed back into its shoulders. It immediately took a step towards the woman.
She held out both hands in front of her body as if she were grasping something and the Vassago stopped advancing. It looked like it was trying to take another step, but the upper body was immobile.
I had time to take several long breaths before either of the combatants moved again. This time, the woman staggered and took a small backward step to regain her balance. The chill feeling had abated when I erected the magical shield but it now returned.
It was clear we were feeling the side effects of the magical chill rather than the brunt of the attack as the Vassago took a small step forward. The air between it and the woman seemed to freeze. I had seen water freeze in the river, but I had never seen air freeze. It may not have frozen, but the magic coursing through it was so strong it no longer looked like air.
The woman took another small step back with one arm upraised in a protective gesture and then she flung one arm toward a nearby tree. The tree fell toward the road just as if someone had cut through the trunk with an axe. For the first time since landing, the Vassago moved quickly and the tree slammed into the road with a thud without touching its white form. However, the action broke the magical connection it had just established with the woman.
Father had tried many times to get me to combine my observations of small actions into an understanding of the larger issues at work. Often, I didn’t see what he was trying to tea
ch me, but I suddenly understood something as vividly as if he were standing at my elbow talking to me. The woman was trying to beat off the Vassago, or even kill it, but the slowly advancing Vassago was trying to reach the woman rather than kill her.
Of course, given what Zephyr and Sorcha had said, the Vassago would kill the woman once it reached her, but that came afterward. I was so scared that sweat ran down my forehead and stung my eyes, but I couldn’t stop watching the fight. I had already seen far more offensive and defensive actions than I had ever imagined possible. My trick with a magical shield was by far the simplest of the things happening on the road.
A few minutes later, during which the woman tried at least a dozen more offensive actions, the Vassago moved within two steps of the woman. Only then did it try to reestablish the magical connection I had called frozen air.
This time, it seemed to work. The woman sank to her knees with both of her hands held up in a defensive position. She swayed back and forth and then grew still. The band of frozen air between the Vassago and the woman grew larger and finally touched her left arm. It was hard to see small actions, but I was positive I saw her clench her right fist.
In response, a huge fir tree tilted and fell in the direction of the two figures. The frozen band of air disappeared when the Vassago threw up both arms. The tree slammed down on the road with the trunk on top of the woman. The Vassago moved aside far enough the trunk missed its body but limbs, some of them thicker than my waist, slashed the air around and over it.
A keening noise numbed my brain as the Vassago emerged from the still flopping limbs of the huge tree and hopped up on the trunk between broken spikes of limbs. It slowly changed back to winged form and there were numerous red splotches on the white wings. It extended the wings and stood motionless for several long moments while the red patches shrank in size.
Finally, it launched from the ground and the great wings beat in regular strokes. Before long, it was high in the sky, heading toward the west. The chill in the air died away as the evil beast passed out of sight beyond a distant hill.
Only then did I look at Ara and Trey again. Ara was covering her eyes with her hands, but Trey was glancing back and forth between the distant hill and the trees lying across the road. He cleared his throat, and his voice was so scratchy he was hard to understand. “She killed herself when the Vassago touched her.”
“She was trying to kill the Vassago, too,” I protested. “She must have hurt it, maybe even badly. It had to stop and heal before it took off.”
“Oh, she was still trying to kill it,” Trey agreed. “However, she made no attempt to protect herself from the tree. She gave up.”
Ara finally joined the conversation. “That’s terrible. That poor woman.”
Trey bounced to his feet and clenched his fists into balls. “Forget the sympathy!” he shouted. “That woman sent the Hunter after my parents. He killed them and he almost killed me.”
“Oh.” Ara seemed to shrivel. “I didn’t know that.”
“Uh. Yeah. Well…” Trey mumbled and shook his head, looking away from Ara. “You couldn’t have known.”
I turned and stared down at the huge pile of dirt and rocks on the road along with the two fallen trees. I needed to learn a lot more about using magic to fight.
Trey stepped so close he was nearly standing on my toes. He stared at me with wide, angry-looking eyes. “Zephyr lied to you,” he grated.
“What?” I asked, trying to make sense of what Trey was saying.
“Didn’t she say the magicians living around the king were weak? That they couldn’t use strong magic.”
“Well, yes, she did,” I responded, already beginning to understand what Trey was saying, and mentally beating myself up for not thinking of it first.
Trey waved his hand toward the debris blocking the road. “You passed out a couple of days ago just trying to hide us. She used a huge amount of magical energy during the fight.”
I tried to think. She had either been able to pull the strong magic from the surrounding ground or she was carrying something that stored huge amounts of magical energy. Suddenly, I realized I had to go look at the woman’s body. I had seen enough dead animals to know what I would find, but I had to know if she had been using an opal. I pointed down toward the road without looking at Ara and Trey. “I’m going down to check on the woman.”
Ara shuddered and whispered. “She’s dead. She has to be dead. That thing touched her and then that tree fell on her.”
“I think she’s dead, too, or the Vassago would not have stood there so long before it left.” I slid down from behind the rocks and looked back at the others. “You don’t have to come with me.”
“I’ll stay here,” Ara squeaked.
“Me, too,” Trey added.
“Watch my pack,” I said and started down the hill.
There was plenty of time for my imagination to paint pictures of what I would find and my resolve started to weaken before I had walked very far. I needed to know whether the magician had been using an opal or not. Even more, I needed to know if Zephyr had been lying to me, although I was nearly positive of it, or she was telling so little of the real situation that the nuggets of truth were misleading.
The smell of pitch greeted me when I approached the road. Fresh blood has a unique smell and I strained, trying to smell it. Just as there was a way to improve my hearing, there must be a magical way to improve the sense of smell, but I wasn’t in the mood to try it for the first time at the moment.
I stopped to look at the trunk of the last tree to fall. It had been cut through on an angle and a wedge of wood was lying beside the stump. The cut on the top of the stump was as smooth as the handle of my knife. Rather than fight through the tangle of broken tree limbs covering the road to where the woman lay, I hopped up on the trunk and started making my way along it. Most of the limbs had sheared off when it hit the ground. I wound around and through the remaining varying-length stubs.
The familiar smell of blood started to overpower the clean scent of pitch by the time I reached the middle of the road. Any thought the woman had survived fled when the blood smell grew stronger. Finally, I saw a booted foot sticking out from under the tree, which was as wide across as my outstretched arms.
The sight of blood soaking into the ground beside the leg made my stomach queasy. I stopped and swallowed hard to keep from getting sick. The feelings of nausea persisted, so I closed my eyes and tried to think. The Vassago had won the magical duel, but not in the way it had wanted. What had it wanted from the woman when she was alive? Why had it left as soon as she died? It hadn’t seemed to be trying to kill her. I looked around uneasily before jumping from the trunk to the ground. Would the Vassago return? Or, maybe a better way to think about it was, when would it return?
Chapter 24 – Blue Sapphire
The snap of a breaking twig interrupted my thoughts. I whirled around, lost my balance, and clutched the stub of a broken limb with one hand to keep from plunging into the tangle of broken branches. I caught my weight with one arm, shuffled both feet back on the trunk and looked in the direction of the sound. Trey and Ara were standing on the bank beside the tree stump looking at me.
Ara waved one hand at the hillside and called out, “We decided we didn’t want to wait up there by ourselves.”
“You could have warned me,” I said gruffly.
“Can’t you tell when we are following you?” Ara said sweetly. She didn’t try to hide her smile for catching me off guard.
“Yes, yes,” I said, feeling frustrated. “I was spending a lot of effort trying to hide and I didn’t check on you.”
Ara shook her head. “We can see you just fine.”
I bristled, knowing I wanted to take a closer look at the woman, but also not wanting to rush into it. “Hiding from magical searches is different than hiding from normal people looking at you.”<
br />
“That woman didn’t hide very well,” Ara said, gesturing toward the ground below the tree trunk.
“She wasn’t trying to hide today,” I replied.
“Did she earlier?” Trey asked.
“Yes,” I said while thinking back over the last couple of days. At times, the woman had been close to the Hunter but I had been able to find her only part of the time. Just thinking of the Hunter caused my hand to tighten around the limb I was still clutching. Was he coming back this way?
A quick magical check located the Hunter still moving away from us, but now at a walking pace. He had already reached the intersection with the King’s Road and he had turned south toward Falkirk.
I opened my eyes and looked down. Waiting wouldn’t make this task any easier. I picked out a place to climb off the trunk before looking back at the others. “The Hunter is still moving the other direction.”
“Good,” Trey grunted. Ara merely raised her eyebrows. I was surprised she didn’t have anything to say.
More twigs snapped when I walked down a slanting limb and hopped down to the ground. My hands were sticky with pitch from using other limbs to steady myself. I looked at the pitch with disgust. Without soap or butter, it would take a long time to clean it off. I thought about the magical cleaning I had been doing to my clothes every day and stared at my hands. The pitch beaded up and slid off my hands like little roll-up bugs.
After scrambling over several branches, I reached the place on the other side of the trunk from where the woman’s foot had been exposed. I pulled back a couple of broken branches and looked down, and then wished I hadn’t. The tree had fallen across the middle of her body and there was blood everywhere.
I peered through the branches, holding my breath, trying to see if she was wearing a pouch or a necklace. The branches kept getting in the way. I broke off a branch and tossed it aside and then forgot everything else when the woman came into full view. I gagged and spit out bile. Father’s dead form had been bad enough when Ara helped me wrap him and pull him out to his grave. However, he had died in bed. The tree had smashed this woman.
Hunted Page 21
